the nuclear contempt option

October 08, 2018

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's putting this together to relatively old Cloud Cult and just realized it could use some new music recommendations like whoa -- now accepting youtube links to chill beats, mellow guitars, and head-nodding raps, or really whatever you're into that you'd like to pass along, honestly. No Spotify links; I still haven't caved yet because I am horrible and stubborn.Also, Instant Band Night 7 is coming, and I'm making it an unofficial Quentin birthday party; more on that below. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway84 - Batman Comin'"Jon (@ferociousj), guest co-host Kelly (@enthusiosity), and special guest Chris Lamb excavate ideas for videogames, comics, holidays, employment, and good movies along with a notion bound to improve society."This episode is notable for many reasons, among them the fact that among his picks, Chris chose an idea I've been dying to talk about, which I can only preview to you as "the ultimate show of contempt." That alone would be worth it, but I need to tell you all that Chris has a literal Donald Trump story in this episode that you must hear from his own mouth. Also, we come up with some really good seeds for Star Trek heist movies.If you haven't yet, subscribe by searching "Idea Factory Giveaway" in your podcatcher of choice (and let me know if it doesn't pop up). If you're already there, feel free to leave a 5-star rating and a nice review (it helps; algorithms, etc, you know the deal).Instant Band Night 7: GenerationsNovember 8, folks: a little under a month out. Quentin's birthday happens to be the 13th, so this is going to be an unofficial Happy Birthday Quentin event. Quentin himself will not be in attendance, as this is past his bedtime, but I am going to take a video of us all singing him "Happy Birthday" to show him at an appropriate age, so please do come; there will also be cake. Oh, and music!! I'm going to give you the full details and FAQ for Instant Band Night here, so get ready to do either a lot of reading or a bit of scrolling:Instant Band Night is a party where musicians who've just met form bands on the spot.(1)The first rule of Instant Band Night is: 👏 YOU 👏 DON'T 👏 HAVE 👏 TO 👏 PLAY 👏 AN 👏 INSTRUMENT 👏 TO 👏 ATTEND 👏 (2)The second rule of Instant Band Night is: We guarantee you (the audience) an astonishingly excellent time.(3)The third rule of Instant Band Night is: Invite your friends!!!!!!!Here's what happens:1. The stage has a drum kit, guitar, bass, keyboard, and mics.2. We draw names out of hats to make instant bands that get 7 minutes in the green room to plan a 5-minute set.3. A hat-drawn artist will also take the stage alongside each band to draw their gig poster on a meeting room easel pad.Come play or come watch; you'll have fun either way! Bring your people, crack a beverage: let's do this.Thursday November 8507 55th St 946098p$5/personBYOB21+Forward this to anyone you think would have a good time there, or use these Facebook and Eventbrite links if that's more your thing. Thanks!* * *  w e ' l l * s e e * y o u * t h e r e * * *F.A.Q.Q: Do I need to be a musician to show up?A: No. Absolutely not. Hell no. Come see the show and have a good time; you don't have to get onstage.Q: I'm a musician; am I guaranteed a slot in a band?A: We literally draw names written on slips of paper out of coffee cans, so there's a chance you may not be called; in a purely mathematical sense, it's a function of how many musicians of each type show up that night (there are five musician cans -- DRUMS, GUITAR, BASS, VOX, MISC -- and one can for artists who'll be picked to draw the bands' gig posters). We say: surrender to the spirit of random chance, or maybe slip the MC a bribe of some sort.Q: Do I have to be an amazing musician to throw my name in a can?A: Probably not. Your band's only gonna be onstage for 5 minutes, anyway; how bad can you possibly be?Q: I play an instrument other than what'll be onstage, like the sax or trumpet. Can I bring it?A: Hhhheeeeeelll yyyeeeessssss you can bring it. PLEASE DO. We had a guy bring a bassoon once, and he rocked the living shit out of it -- and, by extension, us. Woodwinds and brass, which tend not to need extra amplification for a space of this size beyond being pointed vaguely at a mic, are most welcome. If your instrument requires an amp, that's cool, but you should get in touch with Jon about showing up early for setup.Q: Do I have to pick my cover tune beforehand?A: Listen. You and your band (who you've JUST MET) have 5 minutes onstage to do whatever the hell you can think of in the 7 minutes prior to walking up there. You wanna try to pick a cover everyone can agree on? Great. You wanna try writing something new? Fantastic; it can definitely be done. You wanna pick a key and tell each other to just fuckin' wing it up there? You are a RAGING PSYCHOPATH and we love it. We'll see you in 7; get in the green room!!!!Q: What does BYOB stand for?A: We don't sell drinks at Instant Band Night, so you gotta bring your own. Get a cheap sixpack of something. Maybe a bottle and some cups. We're not here to godmod how you get down.Q: Is this in the East Bay?A: It is. Do not be alarmed: it's within walking distance of MacArthur BART, and as a bonus, you get to tour Oakland's version of the Mission on your way over. Or you could just take a Lyft from SF (or the BART station if you fancy). Got a car? Drive on over; parking around the East Bay Community Space is pretty simple. You can do this. We believe in you. 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.It's weird that my relationship to music has changed so much in the last few years. I pretty much only listen to it while putting the newsletter into TinyLetter -- a rote task that demands little to none of my language cortex. (This is why I can't listen to music while working; I need my brain engaged, and if music is playing, it'll just fixate on that instead.) What you might call my leisure time is largely occupied by podcasts these days. Is the declining primacy of music in my life simply down to the proliferation of quality podcasts, or an actual fundamental shift in me? I will say that it's still possible for me to identify new songs to love (a not insignificant amount have come from Eurovision finals), so maybe that latter theory doesn't hold a lot of water. I want to specifically shout out my friend Laura Glu, who's the first person I think of when it comes to "current music appreciators," has appeared in no less than four episodes of the podcast herself, and I'm certain has alerted me in the past to a few bands or albums I now hold dear. All of this is to say that I was serious in the opening to this issue: if you've got something burning a hole in your ear, please do pass it along. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.When do kids get into stuffed animals? Quentin derives some enjoyment from his Totoro, and in the past definitely made friends with a soft bunny we gave him, but I'm waiting for him to really engage with the bigger ones he's got access to now. He laughs uproariously whenever I snurfle them into his face when he's on his back, which is encouraging. Stuffed friends can also be dropped upon him in that position from a foot or two up to great comedic effect. He did, when I wasn't looking, work the nose off his new Snoopy,* which Mavis showed me how to sew back on in fairly short order. Is this a sign? Only time will tell.In other news, Quentin has discovered that the rooms in our apartment are not in fact discrete isolated points in spacetime, but are instead connected via eminently crawlable floors and doorways: he's started to follow us around from room to room and sometimes to venture forth into them even when we're not there. So we're gonna be in the market for some baby gates essentially now; holler if you have some you're not using, I guess? Or tell me which ones are the good ones? I thank you in advance.* Quentin will, in time, be granted custody of a very old Snoopy when the time seems right. 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye. 

  • How about a good AR use case: smart glasses that caption theatre productions for the hard of hearing. (London Evening Standard) 

  • Here's at least one algorithm with immediately obvious benefits: it sorts signal from noise to detect unusual compounds that might make good antibiotics. (CMU press release) 

  • Nap more; it'll help you process information you receive throughout the day. (U of Bristol via EurekAlert) 

  • There's a cottage in France made of chocolate you can rent for a night. Watch out for witches, maybe? Just a thought. (Quartzy) 

  • Katmai National Park in Alaska runs a Fat Bear Week contest to celebrate bears gettin' chonky as they prepare for hibernation, and it's great. (Outside) 

  • Millenials have a different idea of what constitutes luxury, and I have to say I kind of like their version better. (Fortune) 

  • A fascinating longread on educational childrens' programming for YouTube; a good sequel to the one about the creepy, seemingly algorithmically-generated kids' shit from whenever that was, you know the one I'm talking about. (Atlantic) 

  • What's replacing all those hulking empty department stores in malls? (Business Insider) 

  • A great longread on John Urschel, ex-NFL player and mathematician. (Hmm Daily) 

  • Here's an interview with the former head of Google China about AI and where we're headed with all that. (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • Well, fuck: it's possible to hide commands to smart speakers in recordings that sound like something innocuous. (Fast Company) 

  • The Emperor of Japan has published 30 papers on marine biology and employs a staff of researchers at the imperial palace. If I were to become the ceremonial ruler of a country, I like to think something like this is what I'd spend my time and money on. (Quartz) 

  • The piratical goons who shut down Toys R Us after it proved a weaker investment than they would've liked are reportedly working on a $20M hardship fund for the 33K workers who got fucked over. If you do the math, that's a grand total of $606/person. Hey, Bain Capital and KKR: how about coming back with the full $75M -- minimum -- you purulent sack of weeping assholes? (PitchBook) 

  • If we're going to have robot farms, I guess there could be worse versions than this? (MIT Technology Review) 

  • It's time we faced something true that can no longer be denied: The Cruelty Is the Point. What's the answer? I have one, but it's not something I imagine the softhearted among us will like. (Atlantic) 

  • It's so brief it's almost not worth linking to: essentially, a controlled study showed that there's a correlation between increased caffeine consumption and higher pain tolerance. (NYT) 

  • Sir Tim Berners-Lee has an idea for fixing the internet that he's actually starting to implement. (Medium) 

  • Huh: is it possible we haven't searched enough of the universe to even know whether or not the Fermi paradox inheres yet? (Science News) 

  • How about a sugar-powered sensor that can be implanted in the body to detect disease? (Washington State U press release) 

  • Here's a prototype humanoid construction robot in action. (TechCrunch) 

  • The Glorious Anger of Female Voters, One Year Later, because we're gonna need it. (Harper's Bazaar) 

  • I don't know if this is a particular vulnerability of Americans or just a weakness of fandom, but it's utterly unsurprising that literally half the hate coming at The Last Jedi was actually just Russian trolls and bots sowing discord. (Vulture) 

  • It's hard out there for indie game developers, and I don't know how that gets solved, either. Is .......... is it not solvable? (Polygon) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumPreferred Device, Hit it From the Middle Style 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't.